File Picture : The last shot minutes before his assassination, Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at Sriperumbudur , May 21. 1991.
The Supreme Court has directed the premature release of six convicts, including Nalini Sriharan and R P Ravichandran, serving life sentence in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi Assassination case case.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and B V Nagarathna said the judgement of the top court in the case of A G Perarivalan, one of the convicts in the case, is equally applicable in their matter.
Nalini Sriharan and Ravichandran had moved the top court seeking premature release. Both of them had challenged a June 17 order of the Madras High Court, which rejected their pleas for early release, and cited the apex court judgment ordering the release of co-convict Perarivalan.
Nalini, Ravichandran, Santhan, Murugan, Perarivalan, Robert Payas and Jayakumar were sentenced to life terms in the case.
Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a LTTE woman suicide bomber, identified as Dhanu, during the 1991 General Election rally .
Reacting to the SC decision, Congress party has termed “totally unacceptable and completely erroneous” the Supreme Court order directing the premature release of six convicts serving life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, and said the apex court has not acted in consonance with the spirit of India on this issue.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the decision of the Supreme Court to free the remaining killers of the former prime minister is “totally unacceptable and completely erroneous”.
My statement on the decision of the Supreme Court to free the remaining killers of former PM Shri. Rajiv Gandhi pic.twitter.com/ErwqnDGZLc
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) November 11, 2022
